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New Jersey Devils Fans Have A Lot To Be Thankful For

By Nick Villano |
ST. PAUL, MN - NOVEMBER 20: New Jersey Devils defenseman Will Butcher (8), left, celebrates with right wing Kyle Palmieri (21), and defenseman Ben Lovejoy (12) after Butcher scored in the 3rd period during the regular season game between the New Jersey Devils and the Minnesota Wild on November 20, 2017 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Devils defeated the Wild 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by David Berding/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ST. PAUL, MN - NOVEMBER 20: New Jersey Devils defenseman Will Butcher (8), left, celebrates with right wing Kyle Palmieri (21), and defenseman Ben Lovejoy (12) after Butcher scored in the 3rd period during the regular season game between the New Jersey Devils and the Minnesota Wild on November 20, 2017 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Devils defeated the Wild 4-3 in overtime. (Photo by David Berding/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

On today, American Thanksgiving, there is a lot to be thankful for as a New Jersey Devils fan.

The New Jersey Devils are coming off a shootout loss to the Boston Bruins, but waking up this Thursday morning we all have a lot to be thankful for. Take last night’s loss. If this was just one year ago, the Devils would have gone down by two in the first period, and you might as well changed the channel.

This year, however, is a different Devils team. This team has Brian Gibbons, and we need to be thankful for that. Gibbons came into this season with zero expectations. Literally zero. Despite that, he scored his tenth goal of the season last night. That’s more goals than players like Anze Kopitar, Claude Giroux and Tyler Seguin.

You know what else you should be thankful for? Taylor Hall. Somehow, the Devils were able to acquire a player who’s able to skate through a defense by himself, for the price of Adam Larsson. This team has a legitimate offensive superstar who can put the team on his back and create a scoring chance.

The Devils also chose Nico Hischier with the first-overall pick in this year’s draft. When everything pointed to taking Nolan Patrick, general manager Ray Shero decided to go in a different route. Since the start of the season, Patrick has missed a handful of games and scored just four points. On the other side, Hischier has 15 points and seems to get better every game.

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While this may be slightly controversial, Devils fans need to be thankful for Cory Schneider. A lesser goalie would not be able to handle the workload that comes with playing behind this defense. Sure, Will Butcher has been very good in his role and Steve Santini is playing ahead of his expectations, but the blueline is still the weakness of this team. Schneider can make up for this by making some miraculous saves.

There are so many things to be thankful for as a Devils fan. Jesper Bratt breaking out as a sixth-round pick. Still fighting for the Metropolitan Division lead at Thanksgiving is much different than Devils teams of the past few years. We have Shero, who we have full trust in after Lou Lamoriello left for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So remember this. On Thanksgiving 2017, it was good to be a Devils fan.

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